Entertainment
Raj Kapoor was welcomed in Russia without visa: Rishi Kapoor
New Delhi : Sharing insights about the stardom of Raj Kapoor across the world, his son and veteran actor Rishi Kapoor on Friday said that once the late legendary actor-filmmaker was welcomed in Russia without visa when he was in talks with a Russian circus troupe for his blockbuster film “Mera Naam Joker” in the mid-1960s.
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Rishi was in the national capital to attend the opening ceremony of the 1st BRICS Film Festival, where he was felicitated by Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathod and Minister of State for External Affairs Gen. V.K. Singh for his and the Kapoor family’s contribution to the field of cinema.
While receiving the honour, Rishi got nostalgic and recalled a few of his late father’s fruitful memories.
“Raj Kapoor was making ‘Mera Naam Joker’ and I think it was in the mid-1960s when he was negotiating with a Russian circus to be part of the film. He was in London and certainly he had to be in Moscow, Russia — which was then Soviet Union,” Rishi said, adding that Raj Kapoor landed in Moscow thinking he had the visa.
“But he didn’t have visa to come into Moscow. Still they welcomed Raj Kapoor… There was no welcome committee for him because he landed unannounced. So he got outside and waited for a taxi… By then people started recognising that Raj Kapoor is in Moscow. His taxi came and he sat in. Suddenly what he saw was that the taxi is not moving forward and instead is going up. The people took the car on their shoulders,” Rishi said.
Sharing another anecdote of Raj Kapoor’s life, Rishi said: “Much later in mid-1980s, we didn’t really have great ties with China. So China requested the Indian government that they want Raj Kapoor to travel there.”
“When the ministry spoke to Raj Kapoor, he got excited like a young boy. He was very fond of Chinese food. He told my mother, Krishna Kapoor, that I am going to China and you are coming with me.”
However, he added, that Raj Kapoor didn’t go to China.
Rishi shared: “After five or 10 days, he became a little glum. He said to my mother that, ‘No, I will not go to China’. When she asked why, he said that the people of China have watched that Raj Kapoor of the 1950s — the young and handsome guy.”
“Today I have become old and become fat, so I don’t want to break their heart with this look. He never went to China afterwards,” Rishi added.
Raj Kapoor, credited with films like “Awaara”, “Shree 420”, “Anari” and “Sangam”, died at the age of 63 in 1988.
The 1st BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) Film Festival, which is part of the special events planned in the run-up to the 8th BRICS Summit to be held in India, kick-started here at Siri Fort Auditorium Complex with the screening of National Award-winning filmmaker Jayaraj’s multilingual film “Veeram”.
The festival will end on September 6 with the screening of Jackie Chan’s “Skiptrace”.
Entertainment
Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones
International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.
Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.
The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.
Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile
The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.
The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.
“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.
Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings
Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.
Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).
Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.
The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.
Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.
Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities
The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.
On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.
Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.
“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.
The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.
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